When Should Corporations Take a Stand on High-Profile Social Issues?
By Tony Jaques, writing for Managing Outcomes…
The likely overthrow of Roe v Wade to limit access to abortion in the United States has highlighted whether and when business corporations should take a stand on controversial social issues. Denim company Levi Strauss was one of the first major companies to weigh in on this debate, defining it as “a critical business issue.”
The company said efforts to further restrict or criminalize access to the full range of reproductive health care, including abortion, “would have far-reaching consequences for the American workforce, the US economy and our nation’s pursuit of gender and racial equity.”
Stressing the business impact, their statement said research showed legal access to abortion leads to higher educational attainment, labour force participation and earnings, and that women who don’t have access to abortion are more likely to leave the workforce.
Levi Strauss has a record supporting controversial issues, including gun violence, yet such corporate advocacy is not without risk.
For example, a YouGov study in the US showed that, while more than half of millennials supported brands taking a stance on social issues, 59% of adults said they would boycott a brand if they disagreed with its public position on a particular issue.
Moreover, a new survey by the Brunswick Group suggests that corporate executives “vastly overestimate” the importance of speaking on social issues. Although 63% of corporate executives “agree unequivocally that companies should speak out on social issues” only 36% of voters feel the same.
So, how to navigate through this sometimes no-win morass of uncertainty, contradiction and risk?
Business relevance
A company with a consumer brand, such as food or clothing or cosmetics, is more likely to have impact than one with no public profile, for example, producing generic raw materials for other manufacturers. And a trucking company, which uses large amounts of non-renewable fuel, is more likely to have credibility advocating about climate change than campaigning on domestic violence.
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